Only 17 more days until Joss In June, and Dale and I can't wait to see you all!
Hotel Notes
As you may be aware, the conference hotel underwent a change of ownership in early May, transitioning from a Hampton Inn to a Comfort Inn. As a result of this changeover, there have been a few, very minor, hiccups concerning reservations for Joss in June attendees.
Therefore, we are suggesting that you contact the Comfort In Shelby at (704) 482-5666 and confirm your reservations. If you should have any trouble, ask to speak with the hotel manager, Mistie Meadows, and she should be able to straighten things out. Failing that, contact me and Dale and I will do our best to take care of any problems.
If you have not yet made your reservations, we urge you to do so ASAP, as June is wedding season, and Shelby's hotels have a habit of filling up during the season.
Conference Facility Notes
The LeGrand Center is a multi-function building, with the first floor devoted to classroom space for Cleveland County Schools' Early College program, and Joss in June will take place in the conference center on the second floor. Just head upstairs form the main lobby, and you'll see the reception desk where you'll be checking in at the top of the stairs. Elevators are located under the stairs on the first floor for those with mobility issues.
The conference welcome, lunch, keynote, and raffle will be taking place in the Special Events Ballroom (labeled as ballrooms 4-6 on the map below) . The panels will be taking place in Conference Rooms 1 - 3.
Technology Notes
Each conference room has built-in screens and projectors, and integral wall ports for VGA and/or HDMI cables. VGA cables will be provided, but if you need to use an HDMI cable, please bring one with you.
If you are planning to use a PowerPoint or Prezi or to read your paper from a screen, You will also need to bring your own laptop. Hookup will be quick and easy, with tech help in each room for every panel, but the conference rooms are not equipped with computers. Lighting in each room is on separate dimmers and can be adjusted as needed for showing clips from Whedon's darker works!
WiFi internet access is free under the LeGrand's guest access, with no password needed. The signal is strong and fast throughout the conference center.
There will be three very tech-savvy folks wandering around the conference (and one will be in each panel) who are official Joss In June Operatives (only much nicer than the one in Serenity). Our operatives are there to help, especially with tech issues, and, like their namesake, will do whatever it takes to solve your problems. Please don't hesitate to call upon them.
Non-Presenting Registration Still Open
We are able to accept full registration for non-presenting attendees for Joss In June until Friday, June 21. Cost will be $40 each, and will include lunch and two coffee/drink/snack services during the day. So if you have friends who might like to come, or for those of you in the local region, have some students or colleagues who might be interested in checking out a very affordable academic conference, please let them know they are welcome! In fact, we'll even be allowing walk-ins on the 29th, for only $20 (payable by cash or check only) each, but without lunch or access to snacks.
Other Information
McFarland and Co. publishing will be at Joss In June, with tables set up in the atrium area outside of the ballroom, and will be selling their books at a special conference rate. McFarland is usually able to take credit cards as well as cash.
We're also pleased to announce that some incredibly cool (seriously, these shirts just rock!) Joss In June t-shirts will be available for purchase in the atrium, and a few shirts from Slayage 5, held last year in Vancouver, will be available, as well as some Whedon Studies Association (WSA) coffee mugs. We'll let you know about the pricing for all of these items as soon as we figure it out ourselves! However, we will only be able to take cash or checks for t-shirts and mugs, so bring some cashy-money with you.
Also bring some cash for our fantastic raffle, to be held after Rhonda's keynote. We've rounded up some really cool items, including a (relatively) rare Electric Company Spider-Man comic book scripted by Tom Whedon, Joss' father! Other Whedon comics, graphic novels, even a script or two, and more will be raffled off, so bring a few extra bucks for tickets. We'll be selling 1 ticket for $1, 5 tickets for $3, and an arm's length of tickets (measured from middle finger to middle of elbow) for $5.
Our goal for Joss in June is to break even, and t-shirt and raffle sales go towards covering conference expenses. In the event that we actually see a profit from Joss In June, that money will be donated to the WSA to further the international academic study of the works of Joss Whedon.
Joss In June Facebook Page
To facilitate communication between Joss In June attendees, and to help those who might be looking to carpool to and from various airports, we have created a Facebook group page for Joss in June, which you can find at
Since Facebook has a notification feature, we'll definitely be posting updates, etc on the conference there in the final weeks, as well as at the blog and via e-mail. It's also a good place to meet some of the presenters and attendees before the conference, and we'll be posting pics from the conference there, and encourage you guys to do the same.
Tweeting The Conference
Recently, it has become relatively common for people to live-Tweet during academic conferences. We have chosen not to try and ban this practice at Joss In June, and instead have asked all of our presenters to provide us with their Twitter handles, if they use the service. These handles will be posted on each presenter's name-plate, and we ask that if you Tweet about a presentation, you do so with proper accreditation, via either the presenter's full name or Twitter handle. Some best practices for conference tweeting have been developed by the American Historical Association, and, if you think you might Tweet during the conference, I urge you to read the AHA's article here: http://www.historians.
That's it for now, and, as always, please feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns you may have.
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